Just Our Luck: Season One
by CaptainMaddo
Summary: Amara McKinnon joins our survivors as a passenger on Oceanic Flight 815. This fic follows her journeys on the island, as well as her experiences off of the island. The story follows an episode by episode based format, with other "episodes" added in as the story requires. (Rated T for cursing and mild violence) Slow burn, Irregular Updates
1. Pilot

_AN: Hello everyone, I finally worked up the nerve to post this, so here goes :P_

 _This is my first fic i've ever actually posted, and i'm pretty excited about it :D Anywho, this chapter is centered around the pilot. It's a bit short due to Amaras involevement in the action, but the chapter length will increase later on. I'm excited for y'all to read it and to get your feedback :) Enjoy :)_

* * *

 _"Oceanic Flight 815 to Los Angeles now boarding"_

Taking a deep breath, Amara got up from her incredibly uncomfortable airport chair and headed toward the flight attendant to get her ticket checked. Holding her patchwork messenger bag close to her body, she patiently waited in line before entering the plane and heading to her seat. No other passengers had taken the seats in her row yet, so she didn't have to maneuver around anyone else's things while she put her bag in the overhead cabinet. Once everything was situated she took her seat (smack dab in the middle of the row) shook out her blonde curls, and set to tackling the Sudoku books she had purchased at the airport gift shop.

Engrossed in her puzzles, Amara paid no notice to the other passengers settling into the seats around her. At one point a woman in a purple blouse sat in the seat one away to her right, but Amara didn't really realize she was there until cleared her throat. Looking at her to see what was wrong; Amara saw her staring down the man who was placing his bag in their compartment. He caught Amara's attention immediately. The man had deep olive toned skin and longish curly black hair; he had an incredibly attractive face, and the rest of him wasn't bad either, her hazel eyes lingered on his nicely toned shoulders and chest.

" _Damn Son…"_ she thought to herself, admiring him for another moment before realizing what had called her attention to him in the first place. Shooting a meaningful glare at the prejudiced purple-shirted woman she returned to her Sudoku, pausing briefly to smile at the man has he took the seat to her immediate left.

The first couple hours passed in silence, something Amara was absolutely okay with, she was nearly finished with her first Sudoku book when a hand came from her left and tapped the page.

"An eight goes there."

Startled, Amara jumped, eyes flashing towards the man, who chuckled,

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to alarm you." he said in a smooth Middle Eastern accent.

Amara laughed and shook her head,

"Oh no you're fine; I was just zoned out is all." She replied before looking back at her puzzle. He was right, and eight did go there. After marking it in, she turned her body slightly to face him more directly.

"Thanks for that, I had nearly given up on it." The man smiled warmly,

"I'm glad I could be of assistance." Smiling back, Amara held out her hand,

"I'm Amara." He shook it,

"Sayid."

* * *

Fast forward another couple hours and their conversation had moved far past Sudoku into subjects of a more personal manner. They'd already discussed what brought them to Australia (he was visiting old friends) and what they were doing in L.A. (visiting another old friend) currently, they were talking about their college years (he had gone to a university in Cairo "quite a while ago")

"So the professor calls me out right? She's all, 'Ms. McKinnon you need to cease whatever it i-'" The remainder of her sentence was replaced with the gasp that escaped her lips as the plane shook abruptly. Sucking in a deep breath she clenched her fists.

"A little turbulence is normal, it's nothing to worry about" Sayid reassured her. She nodded, but her fists remained tight, she wasn't terribly paranoid when it came to flying, but there was always that one in a million chance…

Suitcases rattled in the compartments as they hit another air pocket and the fasten seat belt sign pinged on in the front.

 _Shit_

Her hands scrambled for her belt, which she promptly secured.

"I'm sure we'll be alright, they're just being cau-" Sayid's latest consolation was drowned out by the screams of other passengers (including her own) as the plane shook violently, sending suitcases and passengers alike flying about. The purple-shirted woman hadn't fastened her seatbelt and was thrown into the ceiling. She was lying in the aisle, presumably unconscious.

Amara and Sayid exchanged panicked looks, but before either of them could say anything, the plane shook again, stronger than before, and Sayid flung his arm across her chest, preventing her from getting knocked around. Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling, and all the passengers were in a frenzy to put them on. Pure terror surged through Amaras body as she pulled the plastic mask over her face

 _shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit_

Soon after, the horrible sound of metal tearing screeched through the air, followed by a sudden blast of wind. The back of the plane had been ripped off. Amara screamed into her mask as people and luggage blew past them and out. They were over the ocean; there was no way they would make it. Fuck, she was going to die. Clinging to her seat for dear life she frantically looked around what was left of the plane. The purple shirted woman was gone; and there was no foreseeable escape route, she didn't even know why she bothered to look in the first place.

Everything was in slow motion as debris continued to blow past, carry-ons tumbling through the air, some ripping open mid-flight. The sound of rushing air muffled the sound the cockpit made as it tore off, and the fuselage was on its own, careening towards certain death. Closing her eyes, Amara waited for her fate. A stabbing streak of pain shot through her body as something hard stuck her in the head. She saw stars for a moment, and then nothing.


	2. Tabula Rasa

**A/N: Hello again, I'm really sorry it took me so long to post this chapter, but I now have access to my own computer (goodbye communal living-room desktop), so I should be able to update regularly as long as my classes and work schedule are kind to me :) Hopefully i'll be able to update weekly from now on :)**

 **This new chapter is quite a bit longer than the first, so hopefully that Makes up for my absence, Thank you so much for reading :)**

Tabula Rasa

"Dude, she's moving!"

Amara groaned and opened her eyes, immediately closing them when bright sunlight assaulted her retinas. She was lying in…. sand? And her left arm hurt like hell.

 _What in the everloving shit is going on?_

She opened her eyes again, more slowly this time, and saw a chubby guy with curly hair waving his arms at someone. Slowly shifting up onto her good arm, she examined her surroundings. She was lying on a long stretch of beach that was covered in mangled wreckage; the ocean lay in front of her, its blue waters reaching out as far as she could see.

 _Oh hell_

"Hey man, you're gonna be okay, the doctors coming." The curly haired guy consoled. Amara nodded absently, staring out across the ocean, struggling to process her situation. The plane, it had crashed, and badly at that, but they had made it. She and at least a few other people had made it out alive. She didn't remember getting out of the plane… someone must have pulled her out, thank god. But where in the hell were they? Looking out on the water, there was nothing, no boats, no land masses, nothing. An unpleasant feeling settled in her stomach. She started counting her fingers and toes. They were all there, thankfully.

"Hey, good to see you're up." Amara looked up to see a man wearing dirty white button down shirt and sporting a killer five-o-clock shadow standing at her side. He handed her a bottle of water,

"Here, you'll want to drink this." Amara nodded,

"Thanks." She drank a bit before replacing the cap and the man kneeled beside her.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Amara."

"Amara, I'm Jack, you've been in and out of consciousness for about three days, do you have a headache?"

 _Three days?_

"Umm, no."

"Any nausea?"

"Not really, no."

He held a finger up in front of her face, "Follow my finger." Amara did, focusing on his fingertip while he moved it back and forth in front of her face. After a moment he nodded, "Your vision seems normal, and you don't seem to have any physical symptoms, but there's still a possibility you might have a concussion. I'm going to ask you a few questions about yourself and if you can't remember any of the answers, tell me okay?" Amara nodded.

"Alright, can you tell me your birthdate?"

"June 29th 1979."

"Where did you grow up?"

"America, for the most part."

"Where did our plane take off from?"

"Sydney, Australia."

"Okay and where were we headed?"

"Los Angles."

Jack smiled, "Good, good. Surprisingly, you seem just fine."

Amara nodded again, her mental fog fading as they spoke.

"What happened to my arm?" she asked, examining the white bandages wrapped neatly around the upper portion.

"Something must have hit you while we crashed, luggage or a piece of shrapnel, there was wreckage flying everywhere, most of us got hit one way or another."

"How many of us made it?" Amaras voice was quiet, she wasn't really sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"About 48."

"Has anyone contacted us? Is anyone coming?"

A pained look crossed Jack's face,

"Charlie, Kate and I went into the jungle and found the cockpit, the pilot was alive, but he told us we had lost radio communications a few hours into the flight so he headed for Fiji, we were 1000 miles off course when we crashed." He paused for a moment, "Rescue doesn't know where to look for us."

"So no one knows where we are…" Amara said, more to herself than anyone else. How could this have happened? This was the most ridiculous situation ever, plane crashes themselves were super rare, but to lose communication with the airport and then crash on a random beach 1000 miles from where they were supposed to be?

"Don't worry, we managed to get the transceiver from the cockpit, there's a group up the mountain trying to get a signal on it to send a call for help. I'm sure they'll get something."

 _A radio for help, that's something at least_

They sat there silent for a moment before Jack spoke again,

"Anyways, I want you to take these," he handed her two little white pills, "and come see me tonight to get your bandages changed alright?"

"No problem, thank you." She smiled gratefully before tossing the pills back. Jack smiled for a second,

"It's no problem. Hurley is going to help get you something to eat and find some fresh clothes. If you feel dizzy, sit down right away and have him come find me." He started to walk away, but Amara stopped him,

"Umm, doc? I have one more question." He turned around,

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Umm, the guy next to me, his name was Sayid, he was from Iraq, did he make it?"

Jack laughed for a second,

"Yeah he did, he's probably on his way back from the mountains right now actually, he'll be happy to see you're awake, he's been checking in on you every once in a while for the past few days now." Amara grinned to herself,

 _Good, he was alive. That's good._

"Need anything else?" He asked good-naturedly.

"Nope, thank you." Jack nodded and headed off down the beach to tend to someone else.

Taking another swig of water, Amara looked up at the curly haired guy who she presumed was Hurley.

"Thanks for helping me out." He waved her off,

"It's no problem dude; you wanna go get some food?"

Amara was suddenly aware of the deep ache of hunger in her stomach.

"That would be fantastic."

She could tell immediately that she liked Hurley; he was very friendly and caught her up on everything that had happened so far while she ate her small tray of "chicken entrée".

"Yeah so when everyone was going to sleep on the first night there were these like, crashing noises in the jungle and everyone freaked out." Amara raised an eyebrow,

"Crashing noises, what like some kind of animal?"

"Something like that, but like, 10,000 times bigger than what you're thinking. This thing was knocking down trees and stuff. Charlie told me about it when they got back from the cockpit. He said it ripped the pilot out of the plane and threw him into a tree. He was all bloody and gross."

"What is this place, Isla Sorna?" Amara asked, trying to fathom any other explanation for a creature that could pull people from planes and deposit their mangled corpses at the tops of trees. Hurley laughed,

"That's what I said man, it's that giant one with a fin or something." Amara chuckled,

"If that's the case we're going to have a massive velociraptor problem soon…"

They exchanged very serious looks for a moment before dissolving into giggles. After a minute or so Hurley stood up,

"I like you man, let's see if we can go find your luggage." Amara nodded and scooped the last forkful of food into her mouth,

"I like you too bro." She said around the bits of rubbery chicken and rice.

It only took the two of them a few minutes to locate three of her five suitcases on the beach. Their bright red exterior made them fairly easy to spot against the pale sand. Kneeling down beside them Amara retrieved her luggage key from her pockets and opened them up, rummaging around with her good arm for a pair of shorts and a tank top, a fresh bra wouldn't have hurt either, but those were in one of her other suitcases.

"What do you need locked suitcases for anyway? Isn't regular luggage expensive enough?"

"I travel a lot for work, and my coworkers aren't historically the most honorable folks. I like to make sure the few things I do keep with me are kept safe." Amara replied, draping a grey ribbed tank top and some worn cutoffs over her injured arm. Carrying her hairbrush and a hair tie in her other hand.

"What, you work for a traveling circus or something?" Hurley asked, extending a hand to help her up. Amara laughed quietly as she took it,

"You actually aren't that far off. Alrighty, where do I go to change?"

Hurley paused for a minute and looked at the treeline,

"I suppose you just go anywhere in there, just don't go in too far, you don't want to get lost or, you know, eaten." Amara paused for a moment before heading toward the vast expanse of green before her,

"I'll do my best."

Admittedly, she was a bit apprehensive of the jungle, it was a damn jungle after all, jungles were known for all sorts of things more volatile than any forest could ever be. Add those factors to the monster that was apparently lurking about and those trees went from intimidating to terrifying.

 _I'll make this quick, I'll change really fast and be back on the beach in no time, the monster won't even know I'm here._

Her small reassurances did little to stay her nerves. She had never done well on her own in the outdoors. Too many horror movies took place in the woods for her to ever be completely comfortable in the wilderness. Taking deep breaths, Amara apprehensively pushed past a giant leafy plant and found that the jungle wasn't nearly as dense as she had anticipated. The area consisted primarily of long grasses and clusters of bamboo plants that grew thicker and more frequently the deeper she went.

 _This isn't so bad, I'll be just fine_

Once she had traveled in far enough where she was sure no one could see her from the beach, she brushed out her unkempt blonde curls and pulled them into a ponytail and began the difficult process of removing her jeans with one hand. Untying and kicking her lace up boots aside she hobbled around in the grass awkwardly until they were finally off and tossed away. Pulling on the cutoffs was a far easier task. Removing her tee shirt was another story entirely, anytime the fabric so much as brushed against her bandages it sent shooting pains down her arm. However, after a considerable amount of stretching and contorting the shirt was off as well. For a moment she just stood there in her bra, enjoying the feel of the cool breeze on her pale skin. Steeling herself, she held the tank top in her hand.

 _Alright I can do this_

Situating her good arm through the sleeve she started to pull the torso of the shirt over her head, but it got stuck, trapping her face in the fabric. Struggling, she tried to pull it down when a whistle cut through the air.

"Well well well, if that isn't the best welcome back I've ever received." A southern drawl came from right in front of her. Amara leapt nearly a mile in the air and yanked the shirt down, hurting her arm considerably in the process. Heart beating louder than a bass drum, she stared at the man who stood chuckling before her. Her face grew hot, she didn't know how to react, she felt she should say something witty back but nothing came out. Looking at her panicked face the guy's grin faded to a look of recognition,

"Hey, ain't you the girl that's been passed out since we got here?"

Amara tucked her arms in closer to her body,

"Yeah, I guess that's Me." she said mostly to the ground.

Before the man could respond, the leaves aways behind him started rustling and cluster of people walked out. Leading the group was a slender brunette woman in an orange tee-shirt.

"Sawyer, who are you talking to?" she called across the space between them.

The southern guy pointed at Amara and called back,

"Coma girl's awake and wandering alone in the jungle of mystery, figured I'd come over and see what was going on."

"She's out here alone? Didn't anyone tell her?" The brunette woman replied, alarm present in her voice.

"Tell who what?" came an English accent from the tail end of the group.

"That girl that got knocked out in the crash woke up." The clearly annoyed American guy closest to him responded. The brunette woman jogged over to meet them,

"Hey, you're up." she smiled warmly before continuing. "Why are you out here on your own? Didn't someone tell you about the-"

"The Spinosaurus? Hurley got me up to speed; I figured I'd be okay if I didn't go too far…" She trailed off, grinding her bare toes into the dirt. The woman nodded,

"Well you're okay so I guess you were right. I'm Kate by the way." She held out her hand and Amara shook it,

"I'm Amara." Kate smiled again, and Sayid stepped forward, a small smile on his lips, Amara smiled back, happy to see a familiar face.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, concerned.

"As good as a girl that got bludgeoned with carry-ons and shrapnel in a violent plane crash can I guess."

Sayid chuckled,

"That's good to hear, would you like to accompany us back to camp?"

"Yeah, that would be spectacular." Amara replied, bending over to grab her shoes and following the group barefoot. As they made the short trek back to the beach Amara was aware of one of the group members sidling up to her. A little unnerved, she turned to her left and was surprised to see another familiar face grinning cheekily at her.

 _Holy-_

"Hello." The man said in a cheerful English accent.

"H-hi." She managed to stammer out, slightly taken aback. After a moment she managed,

"Y-you're Charlie Pace? Fr-from Driveshaft right?"

He laughed and grinned even wider,

"That would be me yes."

"No way, my fiancée was the biggest fan of you guys, we actually met you and Liam at a little pub after one of your earlier shows." Amara gushed excitedly

"Ah, I thought you looked vaguely familiar." Charlie mused, sarcasm evident in his laughing tone. "So ermm, you and your fiancée, were you traveling together?"

"Oh no, no he- he wasn't with me." Amara trailed off, sadness creeping into her voice, "well, I mean, I like to think he's always, you know, with me, which is pretty corny, but no Felix wasn't on the plane."

A couple group members ahead of them exchanged sympathetic looks and Amara was suddenly aware that everyone was listening to their conversation.

"Well I'm sure you'll see him again soon, rescue is out there somewhere." Charlie said optimistically as they reached the beach.

"Yeah, sure.. " Amara mumbled, carefully following the group through the wreckage to the bit of fuselage Sayid had chosen as a platform.

"As you and the others know, we hiked up the mountain in an attempt to help the rescue team locate us. The transceiver failed to pick up a signal. We weren't able to send out a call for help."

Amaras nerves instantly spiked, _Well there goes that theory_

Despite the noises of discontent from the crowd Sayid continued on, "But we're not giving up. If we gather electronic equipment - your cell phones, laptops - I can boost the signal and we can try again, but that may take some time. So for now, we should begin rationing our remaining food. If it rains, we should set up tarps to collect water. I need to organize 3 separate groups. Each group should have a leader. One group for water - I'll organize that. Who's going to organize electronics?"

A tall brown haired guy in a grey sweatshirt raised his hand,

"You? Rationing food?"

Another hand went up, "Okay. And I believe a third group should concern themselves with the construction of shelter." The group slowly started dividing up and going about their tasks, everyone seemed to be trying to assist in some way. Wanting to do her part, Amara made her way to the area on the upper section of the beach where she and Hurley had gathered up her suitcases. Grabbing the smallest of the group she poked around its contents, gathering up her laptop battery, spare cell phone battery, and her mp3 player and its charger.

Jogging back to the group, she located the guy in the grey sweatshirt and joined the small cluster of people gathered around him.

"Once we've gathered enough devices, we'll sort them based on how damaged they are, look through suitcases and carry ons and bring back anything you can find." The group of people nodded and dispersed, leaving Amara standing there

"I guess I'm a little ahead." She said, holding the bundle of electronics out to the man. He laughed,

"That's perfectly fine." He took the devices from her and examined them. "This is a great start." He set them onto a tarp that had been laid out and then extended his hand,

"I'm Ethan." Amara shook it

"Amara, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. Did you want to go look for more devices or will it hurt your arm to dig through the suitcases?" Amara blinked for a moment, looking at her bandages again.

"Umm, no I think its fine, jack must have given me a painkiller or something, I can hardly feel it." Ethan smiled,

"Alright, just be careful with it, you don't want to hurt it worse." Amara nodded,

"Yeah, I will." She smiled and headed down the beach, Ethan was nice enough, but something about him was slightly off, she just couldn't place it.

The rest of Amaras afternoon was spent digging through wreckage, making small talk with other survivors, and unearthing broken cell phones and busted up laptops for the ever growing hoard of broken technology. Once it was obvious that evening would be coming soon, Amara left the technology task and set about building herself a shelter.

After grabbing a couple tarps from the communal tarp pile she returned to where her suitcases were stacked. There was a bit of plane nearby that looked like it would make a sturdy wall.

 _Perfect_

After placing her suitcases against the wreckage to claim it, she wandered about looking for additional supplies. Eventually collecting some pipe-like pieces of plane, a surprisingly light section of the fuselage with two windows, numerous palm leaves, and a ball of twine. _Who on earth travels with twine?_

An hour or so later, she had managed to drag the pieces together to make a triangle shaped shelter complete with a makeshift tarp door that was just tall enough to sit in. It wasn't very pretty, but it would do for the night. Satisfied with her handiwork, Amara made her way back to the main area for dinner, sitting in a group with Charlie, Hurley, Sayid, and the two younger Americans that had been in the group from the mountains.

"I mean I get that he's like, dying and all but could he as least do it quietly?" The blonde girl remarked, addressing the pained groaning that had been echoing around camp since early afternoon.

"Really Shannon?" The brown haired guy, Boone, replied, throwing a deeply annoyed look at his stepsister, which she immediately mirrored back.

As insensitive as it sounded, Amara agreed with her. It certainly wasn't the guys fault, but his constant cries of pain were upsetting everyone. The survivors all knew he was going to die, and many people were debating whether he should die on his own or be "put out of his misery." Amara hadn't announced it, but she was all for mercy killing him and moving on. Jack himself had said there was no way he was going to make it, so why let him suffer?

Everyone was awkwardly silent, Charlie picked at his food, Sayid seemed lost in thought, and Hurley was sifting sand through his fingers. Amara collected the last bit of rice onto her plastic spoon, ate it, and then stood up.

"I think I'm going to turn in for the night. Night y'all" She said, brushing bits of sand off her legs. The group murmured a collection of goodnights and she headed for her shelter, happy to have chosen a place a fair distance from the doctors tent.

Opening the largest of her suitcases she pulled out her quilt and laid it out inside the tent like a carpet over the sand. Next she grabbed a couple of sweatshirts and folded them into a makeshift pillow, she'd have to grab a real one from the plane tomorrow. Pleased with her sleeping accommodations she dug around for a pajama shirt and shorts. She may be stranded on a deserted island, but there was no way she was sleeping in her regular clothes.

After brushing out her hair she laid down in her new bed and pulled her tent flap open to look outside. The sun had set completely, and the only light available came from the scattered campfires. Most everyone would be sleeping by now. Yawning, she closed the tarp and rolled over, trying to get comfortable, listening to the sound of the waves outside. She was nearly asleep when a gunshot rang through the silence, and she shot straight up, a small yelp escaping her lips.

 _Where the hell did someone get a gun?_

Her heart beat pounded in her chest as she stumbled out of her tent and ran towards the main group. Bewildered survivors all looked toward the infirmary, listening to the shouting coming from just outside it,

"You perforated his lung! It'll take hours to bleed out!"

 _Oh god someone actually did it_

Amara exchanged horrified looks with Shannon and Boone, and everyone stood, silent. A few moments later, Sawyer emerged from the tent, a shocked expression on his face. Several long seconds later, Jack exited as well, looking grim. Amara listened for the groaning sounds, but none came.

 _Holy shit_

The realization that the Marshall was dead swept through the crowd, and everyone seemed strangely indifferent to it. A few people actually shrugged before returning to their sleeping places. The rest stood around for a moment before doing the same. It was weird to think about how casually everyone took the news, but the crash had desensitized them she supposed. It wasn't like his death was a surprise.

Yawning, Amara headed back to her tent and laid down. The events of the day had tired her out, and she was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.


	3. Walkabout

**Hello Everyone :)**

 **I intended to update this a little sooner, but life happened and it took me a bit longer than anticipated. Hopefully I'll be able to get a regular update schedule going soon :)**

 **As per the usual, this chapter follows the events that happen in Episode Four (technically) I hope y'all enjoy it :) I'd love to hear your feedback 3**

* * *

Walkabout

"Vincent cut that out!"

Groaning, Amara rolled out of her tent, she was awake, might as well see what the ruckus was about. The fog of sleep slowed her steps as she trudged over to where the others were gathering in front of the plane. Strange growling noises could be heard from inside.

 _What the hell is happening now?_ She thought, rubbing her eyes.

"What is it?" Kate asked, standing up and brushing sand off her jeans.

"Somebody's in there." Claire said, fear present in her voice.

"Everyone in there is dead." Sayid replied.

"Well something is in there." Amara quipped, trying to blink away the sleep.

"Sawyer." Jack said, contempt evident in his voice.

"Right behind you, Jackass."

The two of them pulled flashlights out of their pockets and headed toward the opening, Amara craned her neck to see what was going on, but she couldn't make anything out.

"I'm going to shed some light on this thing."

A terrible squealing sound came from the depths of the cabin.

"RUN!"

Panic ripped through her veins and she sprinted away, feet slipping in the sand. Everyone was everywhere, it was chaos. Ducking behind Boone and Shannon, she crashed to her knees, trying to avoid whatever it was that was chasing them and banging her arm on something hard in the process. Charlie wasn't as lucky, Amara winced as she saw whatever it was take him down, Jack scooping him up shortly thereafter.

As quickly as they had arrived, the three whatevers disappeared into the jungle, leaving a bunch of scared and confused survivors in their wake.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Charlie asked, leaning on Jack. A bald guy Amara hadn't met yet answered him,

"Boars."

In the attempt to escape the rampaging death pigs Amara had managed to tear some stitches out of her arm, and was now sitting in Jack's tent next to Charlie, watching Jack clean the gash on his side.

"Those boars were looking to feed. We have to get rid of the bodies." Jack said plainly. Amara wrinkled her nose; that was the last thing anyone wanted to do.

"Bury them? There's a whole bunch in there." Charlie remarked.

"More than twenty. Digging will be difficult without shovels…" Sayid mused

"Good luck getting enough people to help, that fuselage smells awful, not many people want to go near it, let alone inside of it to extract the decomposing corpses of strangers." Amara added, Sayid and Kate nodded.

"We're not burying them. We need to burn them." There was a collective wince from the tents inhabitants.

"They're people." Kate said, repulsed.

"I know they're people, Kate."

"Burning the remains, they deserve better than that." Sayid added, clearly upset with the idea.

"Better than what? Being eaten by wild animals? Because that's what's going to happen. Any bodies we bury are not going to stay buried for very long. Look, I know this seems harsh, but that fuselage in the sun—it's not about what they deserve. They're gone, and we're not." Jack replied, moving from Charlie's side to Amara's arm as he spoke. While Amara didn't really agree with the solution, she had to admit Jack made a solid argument.

"What you say may be true, but for us to decide how these people are laid to rest—it's not right. No regard for their wishes? Their religions?" More nodding from the peanut gallery.

"We don't have time to sort out everybody's god."

"Really, last I heard we were positively made of time." Charlie's remark made Amara snicker, garnering a disapproving look from Jack, who replied,

"Look, I'm not happy about it either, but we crashed a thousand miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place. It's been 4 days, no one's come. Tomorrow morning we need everyone to start gathering up wood, dried brush, and turn that fuselage into a furnace. Wait until the sun goes down tomorrow night before we start the fire." With that, he finished wrapping up Amara's arm and walked out, leaving everyone to think about what had been said.

"If he's so eager to burn the bodies, why are we waiting until sundown?" Charlie asked

"He's hoping someone will see it." Kate said before quietly leaving as well. Sayid followed shortly thereafter, looking agitated. Leaving Charlie and Amara sitting behind.

"I mean, I understand where he's coming from, but it all sounds a bit harsh you know? I feel like they deserve better than a mass funeral pyre. It just seems impersonal." Amara nodded slowly.

"I agree with you completely. It doesn't feel like a decision that we should be able to make. But then again, it is what needs to be done. Jack's right, burning them is certainly more respectful than letting them be eaten. Also, I'm pretty sure keeping dozens of corpses near our camp poses health concerns."

"True, true." Several moments in uncomfortable silence passed before Amara stood up to leave, murmuring a quiet goodnight before heading alone through the eerily silent camp to her tent.

It was around midday when Amara emerged from her shelter, blearily rubbing sleep from her eyes, heading toward where the food was kept, hoping there was some "Salisbury Steak" left for her to brunch upon. Upon reaching the portion of the wing where the food was however, she was disappointed to find nothing.

 _Someone must have moved it. Bitches._

Now cranky, Amara meandered about, she had seen people with fruit, she just needed to find some. Unfortunately, her efforts were futile. Frustrated and still hindered by what her father called her "morning brain" she headed over to where Sayid was sitting in the sand.

Exhaling in an incredibly exaggerated manner, she plopped down next to him.

"Good afternoon." He said amicably, pausing his tinkering and turning towards her. "Or should I say, Good morning?" he asked, addressing her unkempt appearance. Amara yawned,

"Mornin'."

Sayid chuckled and returned to his project, affixing various wires to different pieces of circuit board. Amara sat quietly beside him, watching him work. He definitely seemed to know what he was doing. Every once in a while, he would look up and select a seemingly random piece of electronics from the pile before him and add it to whatever he was creating. Amara was about to ask him what it was when her stomach growled loudly, interrupting the comfortable silence they had fallen into.

Sayid looked at her again,

"Have you eaten yet?" Amara frowned,

"Nope, some bastard moved the food, then I tried to find some fruit but it was a rather… fruitless effort." Amara started giggling at her own crappy pun, morning brain was still clearly in effect.

Sayid laughed with her for a moment, set his device down, then stood up and held out his hand.

"Hopefully we will be luckier this time." Still grinning at herself, Amara took his hand and allowed herself to be helped up, a few butterflies stirring in her stomach as their palms made contact.

Sure enough, after a few minutes of looking, they found a pile of fruit that Ethan had gathered for the group. Amara instantly perked up at this discovery. Eager to sample what the Island had to offer, she grabbed the first piece she saw.

"You know I've never once eaten a mango?" Amara mused, rolling the large fruit between her hands. It was far less intimidating than the guava, and it smelled sweet, but she hadn't the slightest idea how to eat it. Electing to go with her instincts, she sunk her teeth into its skin, which she then realized was incredibly tough. And disgusting.

Sayid laughed at her twisted facial expression as she worked through the mouthful of peel.

"Clearly."

She wanted desperately to spit it out, but she couldn't.

 _We are plane crash survivors with little supplies. Calories are precious._

"That was wretched." She grimaced, the taste of the rind lingering in her mouth. Still chuckling, Sayid handed her his water bottle, from which she gratefully drank.

"The peel," he said, taking the pale orange fruit from her hands, "Is not meant for consumption I am afraid." He removed a section of the skin, exposing a section of its bright orange insides, and handed it back to her. "You should find this more to your liking."

Amara took the offending fruit from his outstretched hand, their fingers brushing for a moment before she brought its flesh to her lips and bit into it.

"This is much better." She said around a mouthful of sweet tastiness. Now completely awake, she accompanied Sayid back to his workstation, her bare feet padding happily through the sand.

"So what are you building anyways?" she asked as they resumed their seats.

"I'm making an antenna to try and boost the signal for the transceiver, ideally this will make it so we can pick up on a frequency and hopefully broadcast from it."

"Oh wow, that's brilliant. How do you know how to do all of this?"

Sayid paused before responding,

"I was a telecommunications officer in the Republican Guard during the Gulf War." Amara nodded,

"Dude sweet, that certainly came in handy." Sayid laughed,

"I guess it did." He sounded relieved at her response, which upset her a bit. It wasn't something he should feel nervous about sharing. They fell back into silence, Sayid working, Amara contentedly watching him and eating her mango. As time passed however, Amara realized she had stopped watching him work and caught herself watching him. His face was set in a focused expression, yet he seemed relaxed as well. His black curls were tied back, but a small section hung in front of his face and he repeatedly pushed it away while he worked. As he looked about in the pile of parts before him his dark eyelashes fluttered a bit.

A warm blush spread throughout her cheeks and she looked down. There he was sitting right in front of her and she was just staring at him like some creep on the subway, not even trying to be discreet. Thank god he hadn't looked up, that would have been embarrassing. Shaking out her shoulders, she focused back on her food, methodically peeling the skin back in strips and setting them next to her in a small pile. She had made a pretty lattice like pattern out of the pieces and was adding the final bits in when shouting could be heard nearby.

She and Sayid exchanged intrigued looks before stand up and jogging over to where the noise was coming from.

"There's other people here or don't you give a crap?" Hurley had his arms wrapped around Sawyer, clearly trying to grab something from him.

"Well if one of us wouldn't eat more than his fair share..." Sawyer yelled, throwing him off.

"Oh that's bull and you know it. You're not happy unless you're screwing over everybody!"

Boone stepped forward,

"Hey guys, cut it out." Neither of the two combatants acknowledged him.

"Hey I'm peachy, pork pie." Sawyer spat.

"Knock it off guys."

Sawyer whipped around, "Stay outta this Metro."

Amara snickered in spite of herself, and Jack and Sayid ran in,

"Hey!" Jack pulled Sawyer off of Hurley, and Sayid pulled Hurley away.

"What's going on here?" Jack demanded

"Jethro here's hoarding the last of the peanuts!" Hurley protested

 _Wait what? The LAST of them?_

"My OWN stash, I found it in there." Sawyer flung a tanned arm in the direction of the fuselage.

Jack paused before asking, "What about the rest of the food?

"There is no rest of the food, dude. We kind of—ate it all." Hurley replied.

Shock surged through the crowd, a chorus of what's and general noises of disbelief filled the air before Jack spoke again.

"Okay everybody, just calm down." He consoled, clearly taken aback.

Sayid rushed forward, "We can find food. There are plenty of things on this Island we can use for sustenance."

Sawyer plopped down in one of the salvaged airplane seats nearby,

"And exactly how are we going to find this sustenance?"

A knife whizzed through the air and thudded right next to his head. Amara yelped and everyone turned to see who had thrown it. The bald guy from last night stood there, a satisfied look on his face.

"We hunt."

A stunned silence fell over the crowd; a very appropriate reaction to a strange man hurling knives at people for no reason she supposed. The guy didn't LOOK crazy, the clean pressed button down short sleeve he was wearing didn't indicate he was anything other than normal, but chucking deadly weapons around wasn't exactly an indicator of sound mental health.

Kate stepped forward,

"How'd you get that knife on the plane?"

"Checked it." The guy said plainly.

Jack grabbed the knife from next to Sawyers head,

"You either have very good aim, or very bad aim, Mr..."

"Locke. His name is Locke." Michael, the man with the kid, said in a surprisingly hostile tone. Jack didn't seem to notice.

"Okay Mr. Locke, what is it we're hunting?"

A strange glint crossed Locke's eyes before he spoke,

"We know there are wild boar on the Island. Razorbacks, by the look of them. The ones that came into the camp last night were piglets, 100-150 pounds each. Which means that there's a mother nearby. A 250 pound rat, with scimitar-like tusks, and a surly disposition, who'd love nothing more than to eviscerate anything that comes near. Boar's usual mode of attack is to circle around and charge from behind so I figure it'll take at least three of us to distract her long enough for me to flank one of the piglets, pin it, and slit its throat."

Amara exchanged disturbed expressions with Shannon, who the hell was this guy?

Sawyer looked pointedly at Jack.

"And you gave him his knife back?"

"Well if you've got a better idea." Jack argued back.

"Better than the three of you wandering into the magic forest to bag a hunk of ham with nothing but a little bitty hunting knife? Hell no, it's the best idea I ever heard." His pleasant southern drawl dripped with sarcasm. A pondering look crossed Jack's face. He had a good point. Boars were vicious animals, it would take more than one knife to take it out and avoid injury.

A knowing smirk graced Locke's lips and he opened the large silver case at his feet, revealing at least twelve different blades. Everyone stood, not knowing what to make of this situation. Who was this hunter with a nice vocabulary and what had he been doing in Australia that required so many goddamn knives?

Hurley's brow furrowed, and he asked the question on everybody's mind.

"Who is this guy?"

Following what people were already calling "The knife incident" Amara changed into some jeans and a purple tank top and headed over to the fuselage to see if anyone needed help. She wasn't going anywhere NEAR those bodies, but she was willing to gather firewood. Poking around through the thicket that Jack had directed her to, she hauled armful after armful of dead branches to the plane, trying to ignore the horrible stench emanating from inside. On what seemed to be her trillionth trip back, she saw the pregnant girl- Claire- digging through a very familiar looking bag, and looking through a very familiar looking notebook.

Tossing the lumber into the pile, she ran over to the piece of airplane Claire was sitting on.

"Oh my god you found it!" She called, boots slipping a bit in the sand. Claire looked up, a surprised look on her face.

"You're Amara Mckinnon?" She asked, a little bit of hope in her bright blue eyes.

"Yeah that's me," Amara replied with a smile, "I'm so glad you found my bag, I thought it had been lost."

"I'm glad to have found it for you, and that you're not dead of course." She laughed a little and held the bag out, "I hope you don't mind that I read some of your journal, I was just trying to figure out a little bit about you for the memorial service, which, thankfully I don't need to do anymore, because you're alive." Amara laughed and took the bag from her,

"I don't mind at all, there's nothing too juicy in here anyways. Thank you so much for finding it." She said, paging through the worn composition notebook, smiling as she saw the familiar doodles and musings written in varying colors of ink.

"No problem." Claire smiled and the returned to the pile of belongings beside her, and headed slowly back to her tent, rifling through her bag as she walked. Everything seemed to be in there, her journal, pens and pencils, Sudoku books, water bottle (half empty) makeup bag, tiny deodorant, toothbrush and tiny airline appropriate toothpaste (airplane food made her teeth feel fuzzy) and a few remarkably intact granola bars.

Running back over to the plane she slipped one of them to Claire,

"Thanks again." She whispered, before hurrying off. Glancing back she saw Claire grin at her and mouth a thank you before peeling back the wrapper. Resuming the course to her tent she slipped inside and plopped down. She had a lot to write about.

The orange light from the blaze fell upon the somber faces of the forty seven survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, warming their skin as they listened to Claire read from the planes manifest.

"Judith Martha Wexler from Denton, TX, guess she was going to catch a connecting flight. Um, she wore corrective lenses and she was an organ donor, or at least would have been."

It was amazingly sweet of Claire to organize this service to honor those who didn't make it. It was perfect given their situation, and it can't have been easy to dig through all of those bags to find something for everyone who didn't make it.

"Steve and Kristen, I don't know their last name, but they were really in love and were going to be married. At least, wherever they are now, they're not alone." A few tears stung Amaras eyes at that last sentence, and she quickly blinked them away. No one else was crying, she didn't want to be the only one.

Amara stood in silence next to Sayid and Shannon, nodding every so often as Claire listed off trivia about the deceased, a younger guy named Alex had been a touring concert pianist, a German woman named Bianca had been on an early flight back from a friend's destination wedding. It disturbed Amara to think of all the trivial things that lead to their boarding of flight 815. Alex's agent had planned the dates for this month to be in Australia, Bianca's friend chose Australia for her wedding and something had happened to make her leave early. They all had stories like that, but the forty seven of them that stood there had been the only ones lucky enough to make it. It was a sobering thought to say the very least.

"Wollstein, Harold, seat 23C. That's all we have on Harold, his name on a boarding pass... I just wish there was something more... Goodbye, Harold."

Following the service Amara muttered a quick prayer for everyone who hadn't made it. She wasn't a religious person, but she figured they could all use the good intentions. She sent out an extra one just for Harold Wollstein, and headed off to bed.


	4. White Rabbit

**I'm so so so so so sorry it took me so long to get this up, life, work, class, and writers block really got to me while I was working on this chapter. Hopefully I'll work out a schedule soon.**

 **Anyways, I hope you like it, thank you so much for reading 3**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own LOST or any of it's characters, they belong to the writers and producers of the show.**

* * *

White Rabbit

The camp was unusually silent that morning, which wasn't too strange, considering most of the survivors -Amara included- had woken up to the news that they had lost another one of their own. Amara sat alone on the far end of the beach, staring out at the ocean and picking at her breakfast. It was so strange, staring out at those beautiful blue waters and knowing that they were responsible for a woman's death. One of the survivors close to Joanna had said that she was a great swimmer and had gone out every morning, but this time she didn't come back.

Apparently Boone had run out to save her and ended up nearly drowning himself; Jack dove in, but he was only able to save one of them. Boone was weirdly angry that he had been the one to live, Amara had seen him spouting off at him about how "'He was fine' and that 'he runs a business.'" Before Jack took off into the jungle. Evidently running your own business makes you impervious to drowning. The more Amara heard him talk the more she understood why Shannon was always arguing with him.

She let out a sigh and finished what seemed to be her millionth mango, she had actually only had about six in the past two days, but being that they made up almost all of her diet they had turned from an interesting and tasty snack to incredibly tiring. Placing the rinds at her side, she grabbed her journal and wrote, aside from little tasks around camp and the search for her remaining suitcases, she'd been doing an awful lot of writing; detailing as much of their lifestyle as she could, how many day to day accounts of people living on deserted islands with mysterious tree smashing creatures could possibly be out there? If anything, she could publish what she had written once they were rescued, not that she needed the money.

Yawning, Amara doodled piles of mangos in the margins around her entry, little awkwardly shaped ovals drawn in blue ballpoint pen surrounded the news of Joanna's passing. Frowning, she tapped the pen on the page, it was morning, nothing else had happened yet. There wasn't anything she needed to help with (she'd already asked) and napping so soon after she'd woken up would just be ridiculous.

Sighing, she stood up, brushed the sand off her legs and headed back to camp to see what Sayid was up to. He was standing off to the side, talking quietly to Locke and Kate. She jogged over and stood aside, waiting for an opportunity to join in.

"Where is the doctor?" Locke asked

"I don't know," Kate replied, distressed. "No one can find him."

 _Shit bro, he hadn't come back yet? He had run off at least an hour and a half ago…_

"Is this the last of the camp's water supply?" Sayid asked, concerned.

 _Wait what?_

"Yeah." Kate replied plainly. Sayid shook his head,

"Keeping it all in one place, foolish."

"I can go into the jungle, try to find some fresh water." Kate volunteered.

"You're not going alone."

Locke held up his hand, "When the others find out the water's gone it's going to get ugly. And when they find out that someone pinched it, it's going to get uglier. I'll go. Camp needs you two here, especially with the doctor gone. And besides, I know where to look." His tone was amicable yet authoritative. There was a pause after he spoke, and Amara seized the opportunity to join the conversation.

"I'm sorry, what was that about the water being gone?"

Sayid frowned,

"It appears that someone has stolen it."

"Why on earth would anyone do that? It'd be pretty suspicious if everyone was walking around dehydrated and one person was fine." Amara reasoned.

"Who knows, it could be some sort of power move, all we know is that it's missing, and so is Jack." Kate explained, shifting her feet.

"While I can't help much in regards to the water problem, I may be able to help with the latter situation." Amara offered. Locke looked at her curiously;

"Enlighten us, Amara is it?" Amara nodded,

"That's me. In regards to Jack, I saw him take off into the jungle an hour or so ago, Boone was pestering him about what happened this morning, I figured he just had to be alone for a bit so I didn't think too much of it." Kate stiffened,

"We have to go get him." Her eyes were wide, fear evident in her expression. Locke held up a hand again,

"I will go find him, I'm going out there anyways, he shouldn't be too hard to find." Kate opened her mouth to respond but Sayid put his hand on her shoulder,

"Locke is right, we need to stay here. I'm sure the doctor is fine."

Kate clearly didn't agree with either of them, but she nodded anyway. The foursome stood there for a moment, grim expressions on their faces, before Locke headed off without a word. As soon as he was gone, Hurley sprinted up.

"Umm dudes, the Chinese people have water."

They looked over to the Asian woman down the beach aways, sure enough, she was holding a bottle of water in her hands. Without a word Sayid beelined straight towards her. Kate and Amara exchanged alarmed looks before quickly following.

"Where did you get this?" Sayid asked loudly, pointing at the bottle in her hands. She shook her head and started to say something, but Sayid interrupted her, "Where. Did. You. Get. This?" He enunciated each word clearly. The woman started responding, shaking her head.

"She doesn't understand." Kate defended. Sayid shook his head,

"She understands me, Did you steal this water?" The woman's husband ran up and started yelling at Sayid, Amara couldn't understand what he was saying, but she had traveled enough to know Korean when she heard it.

"Just take it easy, alright. We just want to talk, alright? This had water in it. Is it yours? Who gave you this?" Kate explained, trying to mediate the situation. The Korean guy glared and pointed down the beach at Sawyer, who was lazing about, smoking. Kate lurched to go and confront him, but Amara stopped her and shook her head,

"He doesn't have the water with him."

"And?"

Sayid leaned in,

"You go after him now, he'll give you nothing. But if you wait, a rat will always lead you to its hole."

Following the rather tense situation with the Korean couple, Amara, Kate and Sayid separated, Kate and Sayid to follow Sawyer to his "hole" and Amara to go and assist with taking care of Claire, who had evidently fainted earlier that day.

Poking her head in the makeshift infirmary Amara saw Claire sitting by herself.

"Can I come in?" She asked, holding out her last granola bar and her own nearly empty water bottle, "I have snacks." Claire laughed and beckoned her inside.

"Oh thank you so much, Charlie went out to try and find more water awhile ago, something tells me it's not going as planned."

"Well Locke headed out to find some a bit ago, hopefully he'll find a creek or something and save the day." Amara mused, twisting the cap off the bottle and handing it to Claire, who drank gratefully.

"Hopefully." She murmured, passing back the empty bottle. They sat quietly for a moment before Amara spoke again.

"So, how're you doing? I mean, with the whole, pregnancy situation?" Claire smiled,

"Pretty well I guess, you know, considering everything that's happened, but I have to pee constantly, my back hurts and I can't walk like a regular human being. Also, he seems to love kicking my ribs the past couple of days which isn't very fun, but I guess I'm used to it by now." How she managed to say all of those things good naturedly was stunning, if their places had been switched there was no way Amara would be nearly as cheerful.

"Oooh it's a boy? Do you have any names picked out?" Amara asked as she sat down.

"Well I'm not quite sure it's a boy, but I think it is." She paused for a moment, "I haven't really thought of names yet."

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it too much, it took my parents a week to name me, the nurses just called me "Baby Girl" until they managed to agree on something." Claire chuckled a little,

"That's one thing I don't have to worry about, Thomas booked it a few months in, didn't want all the responsibility."

"Are you serious? What an asshole." Amara's nose wrinkled,

 _It would take a horrible person to leave this cutie alone with a baby, she can't be older than 24…_

"Oh yeah, it was ridiculous, he accused me of trying to "trap him" and stormed out."

Amara snorted, "Are you serious?"

Claire nodded, laughing.

"No joke, he barely made minimum wage, there was nothing TO trap." The two dissolved into giggles.

"What's so funny ladies?" Amara looked up to see Charlie standing in the door, a small container in his hands. They laughed for another moment,

"Nothing, nothing." Claire dismissed. He rolled his eyes before handing Claire the cup in his hands,

"It's not much, but it's better than nothing. Oh, Amara, Sayid, he was asking for you."

Surprised, Amara stood up, "Did he say what about?" She asked, brows furrowing.

"Not really, just that he needed to see you." Not wanting to leave Sayid waiting, she said a quick goodbye and headed out, leaving Charlie to look after Claire. Glancing up and down the beach, she located Sayid and jogged over to him.

Amara let out a small excited peeping sound when she saw what he was holding.

"Oh my god where did you find it?" Amara asked, incredulous.

"The redneck had it hidden away, Kate and I found it when we followed him." Sayid said as he handed her one of her remaining suitcases. Amara hugged it briefly before setting it down at her feet.

"Did he have the water?" She inquired as she dug into her pockets for her key.

 _Bras and soap, please let this be the one with bras and soap_

"No, he did not." He sounded almost disappointed.

Amara sat in front of her suitcase,

"Then who has it? Has anyone asked Michael? He's got a kid, maybe he's trying to make sure his son is okay?" Sayid shook his head,

"I don't believe it's him."

Amara frowned, who would take the groups water supply? It had been six days, it's not like they knew each other well enough to be able to figure it out. Dissatisfied with the lack of development, she sighed,

"Well, I guess we'll find out when all but one of us are dying of dehydration." Amara placed the tiny silver key into the lock and turned it, and the top of the case popped open,

"Oh my god I could kiss you right now."

Lying neatly inside was neat row of bras and matching underwear, bath towel and robe, shampoo, and three small wax paper packages sealed with stickers, A.K.A the cute little bars of organic soap she had bought from a vendor at a farmers market a few days before her flight.

 _Hell yeah_

Her smudge kit, candles and jewelry were also in there somewhere, but for now, all she cared about was the soap. Grabbing one of the little bars she tossed it to a smirking Sayid, who immediately started examining it.

"It's rosemary soap I got in Australia, it smells awesome. Not the most masculine thing ever, but soap is soap I guess. Thanks for getting my case back." She closed the case and stood up, grinning. Sayid returned her smile,

"You're welcome." He chuckled and brought the soap to his nose, "This does smell good, thank you."

Amara waved him off, "It's nothing really, Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to wash my hair." Amara waved a goodbye and headed to her tent. She changed into her purple two piece bathing suit and went to find a somewhat secluded area of the beach to bathe at. Arms full of various bathing supplies, she eventually found a spot somewhat obscured by dark, jagged rocks and went in, setting her shampoo and soap on a flat section of stone before submerging her body in the waves.

Her injured arm ached a little as she worked the shampoo into her hair but she paid it no mind. Jack had stitched it up well and it was healing somewhat disturbingly fast. Standing tummy-deep in the water, Amara temporarily forgot everything. She forgot about the water crisis, forgot about the mangos, forgot about Joanna, and even forgot about the crash. She ran the bar of soap across her lightly tanned skin and washed away the sweat and dirt that covered her body. For the first time in six days she was _clean_ clean, not just-rinsed-off-in-the-ocean-real-quick clean.

Heading back to her towel she dropped her shampoo and grabbed her razor. Sitting down in the shallows she shaved her legs. It certainly wasn't something that had to be done, but it felt awesome regardless. For a while she just sat there, feeling the water swirl around her smooth legs, and the now setting sun's heat on her fragrant skin. This place wasn't too bad, apart from the monster and angry boars, they could have crashed in worse places.

Amara stayed in the water until the sun started to dip low on the horizon, letting out a content sigh, she gathered up her things and made her way to her tent, wanting to get some writing time in before the sun set completely. After changing into entirely fresh clothing, she headed back out to camp, snagging herself a guava and settling in near one of the fires. Nestled against a bit if wreckage, she wrote, filling two pages talking about the water shortage, Claire fainting, and how soap was much too underappreciated in regular society. She was finishing up her entry when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Boone hit the sand about fifteen feet to her right.

"Here's your thief." Charlie proclaimed, standing above him, disgusted expression on his face.

 _Oh shit_

Amara closed her journal and stood up quickly, running over to them.

Michael jogged over from the side

"Where'd he hide it?"

"I don't know. This wanker had three bottles on him. Why'd you do it, pretty boy, eh?" Charlie paced in circles around Boone, who stood up.

"It was just sitting in—it was just sitting in the tent, and Jack just took off." Boone said, out of breath.

"Claire could've died!" Charlie exclaimed. Amara nodded,

"I tried to give her some sooner, but it just got out of hand. No one would have understood."

 _No one understands_ _now_ _you dipshit_

Kate ran up, "What is going on?

"Someone had to take responsibility for it. It would have never lasted!" Boone yelled.

Charlie lunged at him,

"Oh shut up!" Sayid grabbed him and took him to the side.

"Leave him alone!" Everyone froze and turned to see Jack standing there, looking a little less worn out than he had before he left.

 _Perfect timing_

It was silent for a moment, everyone stared at Jack, waiting to see what he had to say. He took a breath;

"It's been six days and we're all still waiting. Waiting for someone to come. But what if they don't?" No one made eye contact. That wasn't something anyone wanted to even think about. Jack stepped down into the group and continued,

"We have to stop waiting. We need to start figuring things out. A woman died this morning just going for a swim and he tried to save her, and now you're about to crucify him?" Charlie glared back at him.

 _He DID steal the camps water supply…_

"We can't do this. Every man for himself is not going to work. It's time to start organizing. We need to figure out how we're going to survive here. Now, I found water. Fresh water, up in the valley."

 _Oh thank god_

"I'll take a group in at first light. If you don't wanna come then find another way to contribute. Last week most of us were strangers, but we're all here now. And god knows how long we're going to be here. But if we can't live together, we're going to die alone."

Everyone stood there, silent. He was right, they had to start working together. Amara looked at the people surrounding her, realizing for the first time in six days that they might be living out the rest of their lives together on this island. Everyone stood there for a moment before slowly dispersing. Amara headed back to where she had been sitting a few minutes before, leaning her head against the cool metal of the plane. Moments later, she was surprised to see Shannon standing before her, holding out a cup of water.

"Hey, Charlie asked me to get this to you." Amara grabbed it and drank, nearly draining it all.

"Thanks." She smiled. Shannon nodded and sat down near her. They sat silently together, sipping at their water and staring into the flames. Finishing her drink, Amara watched the fire slowly consume the branches, not even realizing it when she fell asleep.


	5. House of the Rising Sun

AN: Hey fam, I'm really sorry about how long this took me, I've just not been feeling life too much lately :/ But school is out for the semester and I've gotten a much better handle on my life since, so I'll do my very best to start writing regularly. Thank you so much to those who've been reviewing, your words really spurred me to get this done and to power through the writer's block, ILYSM

This chapter follows Amara through her day on the beach while all the drama with the bee's and heroine in the caves was going on, and while Jin was handcuffed to the plane, Amara makes a new frend here, which is something I've been excited to start showing :) As always, I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading :D

* * *

House of the Rising Sun

Amar'as day started early, she awoke to the bright rising sun on her face, curled up against a section of windows from the plane, wrapped in a blue wool blanket. Groaning, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. This was not her tent. Tugging the blanket down, she held the soft blue fabric in her scratched hands. It wasn't hers, someone must have brought it to her last night. Glancing to her left she saw Shannon curled up next the burned out fire, golden blonde hair covering her eyes. She had a blanket too.

 _Thank you mysterious blanket fairy_

Yawning, she stretched her body and slouched back down, not wanting to face the day just yet. For a long while she just sat there staring out at the ocean, listening to the ever present sound of waves rushing along the shore. The camp was remarkably quiet. It had to be about six in the morning, no one was awake yet. Realizing she wouldn't be falling back to sleep anytime soon, she stood up and shook the sand off of her legs.

 _Hopefully there's a papaya or two left from last night_

Wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, she sleepily trudged over to what had become their sort of "meeting place" and was pleased to see Locke standing there, adding fresh fruit to the pile from his bag.

"Amara! Unusual to see you up this early."

"Yeah, that's what I get for sleeping on the beach. The sun's out here." Amara mumbled, grabbing herself a papaya and leaning against a protruding piece of plane. Locke chuckled,

"That it is. Will you be joining us to get water?" her eyes widened, the last thing she wanted was to go get water, but what could she say? 'No, sorry John, I just feel like sitting on my ass all day like I have been the whole time' No, she needed a reason, a good one at that.

"Oh no, I'm- erm, I was planning on… sorting through the clothes that are left and organizing the unclaimed suitcase supplies, see if anything got missed out on you know? Maybe take an inventory as we go." Locke squinted a little and nodded,

"That's a good idea, it'll help us monitor the use of our resources, see what we need to conserve."

Amara nodded sleepily, happy that her excuse had worked. Of course, now she actually HAD to sort through suitcases and inventory their contents, but it was better than lugging gallons of water-quite possibly the heaviest thing ever- through the spooky creepy jungle. Locke, bag of fruit now empty, headed off down the beach without a word, and Amara turned her attention to her breakfast.

Amara turned the large greenish fruit over in her hands and pulled out her pocketknife, cutting it in half to reveal the orange flesh and the cluster of black seeds in the center. Two halves of papaya in her hands, she headed back to where she had woken up, Shannon was still asleep next to the fire pit. Carefully Amara tiptoed around her back to her spot against the plane, sitting down and cleaning the fruit, removing the seeds and tossing them into the ashes.

Leaning back, she set one half of the papaya aside and used her knife to cut crisscross incisions in the piece she was holding so she could eat it with her hands. Happily picking at her tropical breakfast, she reached for her journal, which had been placed next to her, along with her pen. She wrote sort of mindlessly as the sun rose higher in the sky, musing about fruit and Jacks speech, hopping from topic to topic without any real purpose.

She used to start every morning like this, after she finished high school she didn't pursue any further education, nor did she need a job, her father made sure she was comfortable. As a result she lived a very contented, free life, traveling as she saw fit, waking up whenever she felt like it, the only real constant was her journals. She had documented almost everything that happened to her; all the romantic summer affairs, every museum, landmark, interesting snack, and, during her Polaroid phase, every outfit.

It was only after she met Felix that she settled down back in London, they had gotten a flat in one of her father's buildings, and Amara traded in her nomad lifestyle for a much more stable one. Felix worked as a barista, while he was gone at work Amara took Martial Arts classes and started up a blog for her travel photos. No one really followed it, but she posted anyways, it kept her busy. Their little life was perfect, was being the key term…

"Hey, where'd you get that?"

Amara glanced up to see Shannon sitting before her, pointing at the uneaten half of her papaya.

"Oh, Locke went out for more fruit earlier, did you want it? I'm not hungry anymore." Amara grabbed it and held it out to her. Shannon looked at her for a moment, then nodded,

"Yeah, thanks." She reached out her neatly manicured hand and took it, pulling out a small chunk and eating it. They sat silently for a moment before Shannon spoke again,

"So is that like, a diary or something?"

"Oh this? Not really, I don't write any mushy feeling type stuff that much. I just write about what happens every day, if anything crazy happens in the news, or I eat something weird, that kind of stuff." Shannon nodded,

"Are you a journalist?" Amara shifted to face her more directly and shook her head.

"No, I actually don't really have a job, I mean, I did technically, I got paid and everything, but it was more of a hobby than a job."

Shannon raised an eyebrow,

"What was it?"

Amara laughed for a moment,

"It's going to sound really nerdy and weird, but I'm a performer in a traveling renaissance fair." Shannon snorted, a reaction Amara had expected, "I know, I know, I just wanted a change, saw the posters, tried out and got the gig. I always liked going to them with my dad when I was little so I figured being in one would be fun."

"So do you like, joust or what?"

"No no, I'm a pub singer, I sing traditional Celtic songs in the evening around a fire, and I get to wear a pirate shirt and a corset, it's pretty fun. We travel all over Europe, I get to sleep in however much I want, and my coworkers are really… interesting."

Shannon nodded,

"Didn't you say you had a fiancé? What does he think about it?" Amaras face fell,

"Oh umm, Felix was actually the one who encouraged me to do it, he knew I liked to sing, he wanted me to do what would make me happy." Shannon laughed quietly,

"Sounds like a decent guy, none of my fiancés were anything like that." Amara blinked,

"Wait, none? As in more than one?"

"Yeah, three actually," seeing the stunned look on Amara's face she added, "It's a long story."

"Sounds like it." Amara said, laughing

The two continued to talk as the sun rose, exchanging stories of nightmare exes past before Boone came around and Shannon left with him, the stepsiblings immediately began bickering as they headed up the beach. Amara sat there for a moment just staring into nothing before she got up to wander around a little, ending up in the shade of a large bit of the fuselage.

"Well howdy there Princess, what brings you over here, shouldn't you be off with Ali Baba somewhere?" Amara turned around, nose wrinkled,

"Don't call him that, he doesn't appreciate it." Amara chided. Sawyer raised his hands in a sarcastic defeat,

"All right, all right. You still didn't answer my question though." Amara rolled her eyes,

"I'm procrastinating."

"Procrastinating what? We're on a goddamn island sweetheart, last I checked we didn't have anything we had to do but just sit here and wait around."

"I told Locke I'd sort through suitcases to get out of water duty this morning and now I don't really want to do it." Sawyer laughed,

"I see, well if you find anything good make let me know." Amara grinned at him cheekily,

"Only if you help me look through everything?" He laughed louder, he had a pleasant laugh, but something told her he didn't use it too often.

"Not a chance princess, I'm taking the day off."

"I had to try."

Amara was fake pouting when Sayid joined them,

"Good morning Amara, Sawyer." There was slightly less hostility in his tone than usual when he addressed Sawyer, which Amara considered progress as. Over the course of the week Sawyer had sort of grown on her, she could tell he wasn't as much of a jerk as he wanted to appear, and she appreciated his snark on most occasions.

Sayid was about to say something when screaming erupted from down the beach (again).

"STOP IT! STOP PLEASE YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM!" Without question the three bolted to the scene to find Walt and the Korean woman screaming at the top of their lungs at the woman's husband, who was beating the shit out of Michael. The three of them sprinted into the water, Sayid tackled the Korean guy off of Michael and Sawyer and Amara pulled Michael up, each taking one of his arms over their shoulder and helping him to the shore.

"The handcuffs from the Sky Marshall! Now!" Sayid yelled as the man thrashed around. Sawyer tried to hand him the cuffs from his pocket but the man twisted around and slammed Sayid underwater, Sawyer went in after him, leaving Amara to pull Michael to shore on her own. The water sloshed around behind them as she helped him sit down in the sand,

"Dad! Are you okay?" Walt ran over, clearly very upset. Michael nodded a little but he didn't say anything.

"Your dad's going to be alright hon, he's just got to rest for a little bit, he'll be fine." Amara tried to soothe the boys nerves while Sayid and Sawyer wrestled the Korean guy up the beach to a piece of the plane. They managed to get him cuffed to a metal bit and Amara helped Michael back up as Sayid turned to the man's wife,

"What happened?"

Amara stood off to the side and watched the scene unfold before her, Michael and Sayid were arguing,

"I'm getting tired of saying this. I was just walking the beach with my son, and all of the sudden this dude is all up on me. I didn't "do" anything!" The Korean guy yelled something, and all the onlookers exchanged nervous glances. Sayid sighed,

"Surely there must be something you're not telling us."

"Surely? Where you from man?" Michael asked, getting more and more pissed as this interaction went on.

"Tikrit." He paused and when Michael didn't respond, he clarified, "Iraq."

"Okay. I don't know how it is in Iraq, but in the United States of America where I'm from, Korean people don't like black people. Did you know that?" Sayid shook his head. Then the Korean guy yelled some more.

"So maybe you ought to talk to him!" Michael yelled, pointing at his attacker.

The man's wife said something, pointing at her wrist.

"The cuffs stay on!"

"A little louder, Omar. Maybe then she'll understand you." Sawyer quipped.

"Guys, that Chinese dude is going to get pretty crispy out here. How long are you going to keep him tied down like that?" Hurley asked, concerned.

Sayid frowned,

"He tried to kill Michael. We all saw it. The cuffs stay on until we know why."

Amara stepped in,

"How exactly are we supposed to find out? They don't speak English and no one here speaks Korean." Sayid frowned again,

"We'll figure it out sooner or later." He looked over at Michael and then at the Korean man and then walked off down the beach.

"Come on, man. Let's go." Michael grabbed Walt's shoulders and headed off. Everyone took this as a sign that the action was over for now and the little crowd dissolved, Amara gave the man's wife a sympathetic look and headed over to her tent to change into clothes that weren't soaked.

Immediately following the fight Amara set to her task for the day and headed over to the massive pile of luggage in the middle of the beach. Signing she plopped down in the sand next to a heap of toiletry bags and pulled out a notepad she had scavenged the day prior, titling INVENTORY: TOILETRIES. Wishing she hadn't volunteered herself for this she began dumping the bags out into a communal pile in front of her and setting the bags aside to sort into. She was just starting to sort the items when she heard arguing coming towards her.

"All you've done since we got here is complain and manipulate people into fishing for you, meanwhile, some of us are actually trying to help out around here."

"Oh yeah, because stealing all of the water is totally 'helping out' I'm sure everyone really appreciated that, besides, I have been helping." Amara looked up and saw Shannon and Boone heading towards her, arguing as usual.

"Really Shan? What have you been doing?" Shannon put her hands on her hips,

"I went on the hike to find the radio signal, I helped pass out water yesterday and..." She looked around briefly before her eyes landed on Amara, "and I told Amara I'd help her go through the luggage today." She grinned triumphantly at her brother, who wasn't having it at all.

"No you didn't, you didn't even know she was planning that, you just saw her." Amara was still pissed at Boone about the water and decided to help Shannon out,

"Actually she did know, we talked about it this morning." She interrupted from behind the small hoard she had gathered, grinning widely. Boone appeared surprised for a moment, then immediately looked suspicious. Shannon tossed him a smug look before walking over and sitting to Amara's left. Boone responded by glowering and walking away without a word.

"Thanks for that." Shannon said gratefully.

"No problem." Amara tossed a tiny shampoo bottle into one of the bags before reaching into the pile again. "I've got all the bags dumped out, now all we have to do is sort the pile, then count out and write down what we have. It shouldn't take too long I don't think."

She was wrong.

At least three hours later the pair had managed to sort through not only all of the toiletries, but also all of the clothing and miscellaneous items that hadn't been scavenged away in the days prior. They were both hot and thirsty, but they were getting along quite well, bonding over their regret for volunteering for the task in the first place.

"Okay so how many toothbrushes do we have again?" Shannon glanced at the notepad,

"Umm, 46."

"Tubes of toothpaste?'

"23"

"Shit. How about floss? Did we even find any?"

"Um yeah, three of them, plus one that was pretty smashed up."

Amara sat back on her heels,

"Well it's not like anyone actually flosses in the first place," she mused, "The issue will be distributing the actual toothpaste..." Shannon frowned,

"How are we going to distribute any of it? It's not like people are going to be civil when they find out only a certain number of people will get shampoo, and that those who get it won't have much anyways." Amara shrugged,

"That's for someone else to deal with. We sorted it, we don't need to distribute it, leave that to Jack or Kate. Personally, I'm all set for a while." Shannon looked relived that distribution was not in their plans for the day and leaned back against the stack of suitcases that held the men's clothing. Sighing contentedly, Amara laid back as well, happy to take a break. After a little while Shannon broke the silence,

"God when are they going to be back with the water? Didn't the doctor say it was only a mile or two into the jungle? Why is it taking them so long?"

 _Jeeze, they have been gone awhile haven't they?_

Concerned, Amara stood up and looked over towards the treeline, searching for any sign of the group that had headed out that morning. She stood there a moment, and surprisingly Jack, Kate, and Sayid emerged from the foliage. From what she could tell, Sayid didn't look too thrilled to be with them, he walked away from them quickly, arms full of firewood. Jack and Kate separated as well, each burdened with backpacks presumably full of water bottles.

"Hey Shannon, they're here." Amara said cheerfully, tapping the blonde's arm before jogging over to Kate. Shannon stood up and followed quickly.

"Hey Kate, how'd it go?" Kate set the bag down on a bit of wreckage,

"Pretty well, we got the water, Charlie and Locke stayed back in the caves to check them out and scavenge for other luggage." She unzipped the bag and pulled out two bottles handing one to each of them. "There you go." Amara twisted off the cap and drank gratefully,

"Thanks a million." She said, capping the bottle and grinning widely. Shannon nodded her thanks and Kate smiled back,

"No problem guys." Water in hand the girls headed back to their sorting site.

"It looks like all we have left is to put the cases somewhere they won't get soaked if it rains again." Amara assessed, staring out at the heap of luggage before them. Shannon pointed to the wing of the plane,

"How about underneath there?" Amara shrugged,

"Works for me." They signed together and started hauling the bags over to the plane, tucking them slightly under the wall to keep them out of the way. Once they were done Amara looked over at Shannon,

"I could really go for some lunch and a nap right now." Shannon nodded,

"Same, where'd you get that fruit earlier?"

Two guavas and a mango later, the girls were stretched out on blankets in their bikinis outside Amara's tent. happily dozing in the warm sun. They had accomplished a lot today, and Amara felt good about being productive. She was also happy to have befriended Shannon, the two of them had a lot more in common than she had originally thought. She seemed a lot like the girls she had gone to school with at first, but she could tell there was something more to her than her nice clothes and manicure.

Sighing, Amara sat up to adjust her top and saw Sayid walking their way. She raised her hand in a cheerful wave,

"Hey."

Sayid looked between the two of them and chuckled,

"You two seem comfortable."

"We sorted through the rest of the luggage, figured we deserved a nap." Shannon nodded, propping herself up on her arm. Sayid gestured to the sand in front of them,

"Do you mind?" Amara shook her head,

"Course not."

He sat down,

"Has Jack talked to you yet?"

"Umm, no I haven't talked to him today." Amara said, confused. Shannon nodded,

"Neither have I, why?" Sayid sighed,

"Jack is going around and asking people to go with him to live in the caves. I spoke to him about it not being a good idea, but he seems to believe otherwise, I came over to see what you were planning on doing."

Amara frowned, she could definitely see the perks of living right by a source of water, but if everyone left the beach, who would be there if a plane or a boat came by? But if a lot of people were living in the caves, they'd probably keep the food there, which meant a long hike every time you wanted food if you didn't want to pick it yourself. Regardless the beach had to be nicer than a cave right? Plus moving her luggage through the jungle would be absolutely awful. No, she'd definitely be staying.

"I'm not going anywhere, I'd like to be here when rescue shows up personally, but that's just me." Shannon nodded, and Sayid looked relieved,

"That's good to hear."

Amara and Shannon spent the rest of the day together, babbling on about whatever came to mind, Jack came by and talked about the caves for a bit then he left to go recruit others. Boone joined them around dinner time. After him and Shannon argued a little about the caves, he was actually quite tolerable to be around. A little after dinner the people who were heading out to the caves left, and those who remained steadily fell silent. Amara was the first of the trio to leave, saying a quick goodnight before heading over to her tent.

She laid awake in her bed for a while, staring at the tarp ceiling, wondering how the camp splitting would affect their lives from this point.

 _Hopefully it wouldn't be too different._

Yawning, she rolled over onto her side; hoping that tomorrow would be as uneventful as possible, and she fell asleep.


	6. The Moth

**A:N Hey fam, I just want to send out some major apologies for how late this is, my computer crashed and it took a couple months to fix it because I'm broke af, but it's all up and running now so hopefully updates will be much more frequent from now on :)**

 **So anyway, this chapter is a lot of Amara just chilling out, more getting to know her and her bonding with some people, that world building type of stuff :) I'm really excited to start getting more into the action of the show in the next couple chapters, I think they're going to be pretty exciting, so stay tuned 3**

 **Thanks again for reading :D**

 ***I do not own lost or any of its characters***

* * *

The Moth

The sound of urgent voices woke Amara on day eight on The Island.

 _Awesome, that's just great, what now?_

Groaning, she shoved her blankets off and yanked her tent open, blinking for a moment in the glaring sunlight before stumbling out into the sand. After taking a moment to figure out her surroundings, she determined that the distressed voices were coming from the treeline and headed over.

 _The way_ _they're carrying on you'd think someone was dying…._

 _Wait, shit_

Amara ran over just as a cluster of people took off into the jungle, she considered following, but declined when she remembered she wasn't wearing shoes. Still concerned, she headed over to Shannon who was standing nearby.

"What was that all about?" Shannon shrugged,

"I don't know, something about Jack needing help at the caves." Her tone showed disinterest, making Amara feel like it might not be that dire a situation after all.

"Should we go help?"

"I can't, Boone gave me this thing from Sayid to do today," Shannon pointed towards a bit of metal protruding from the sand a few feet away, "You could help me with it if you want."

"Does it involve going into the jungle at all?"

"Nope."

Amara grinned,

"Rad, just give me a sec to put some actual clothes on." She gesturing to her baggy tee shirt and gym shorts.

Shannon looked her up and down,

"Yeah, go do that."

Five minutes later Amara had thrown on a bikini and a loose, patterned sundress and was sitting on a towel next to a big metal stake and a bottle rocket.

"Okay so what exactly is our objective here?"

"At five or something Sayid is going to light one of these," she pointed to the bottle rocket, "then we light ours and flip the little switch on whatever this thing is." Shannon explained.

Amara raised an eyebrow,

"That's it?"

"Yep."

 _Sounds easy enough_

"Did he say why we were doing this?"

Shannon laid out her towel and stretched out,

"He's trying to find the French Lady's signal, but he's running out of battery or something."

 _Wait what?_

Amara's nose wrinkled in confusion,

"Who's the French Lady? What do you mean?"

 _Are there other people on the island?_

Shannon bolted up, eyes wide,

"Shit! Don't tell anyone I told you that, we weren't supposed to tell anyone." Her green eyes were full of panic. Amara was startled by Shannon's reaction,

"I swear I won't," she assured, "but you have got to let me in on whatever you're talking about."

Shannon sighed and leaned towards her,

"Only if you swear you won't tell anyone okay? If Boone finds out that I told you I'll never hear the end of it."

"Yeah no problem I swear." Amara crossed her heart and scooted closer. Shannon rolled her eyes at the gesture and began explaining;

"It all started when we went up to get the signal with the transceiver, the day before you woke up. We got up to the mountain and then Sayid picked up radio waves and we thought we were saved for a second, but the message kept repeating itself over and over. It was a French woman saying that something had killed all of her friends and that she was alone on the island, at the end of the message a bunch of numbers would start, counting how many times the message had played or whatever, and Sayid did some math and figured out that the message had been playing for sixteen years on a loop. He figures something has to be powering the broadcast so he's going to try to find that I guess, that's why we're here."

Amara's eyes were wide, for a moment she just sat there, dumbfounded. _What did this mean for them? Had the French Woman been found? If she had why was the message still going? Was she still alive or did "it" kill her too? If no one had heard her signal would anyone hear them? She had to be dead, how would you be able to survive for sixteen years alone on an island with a monster? Is anyone going to find us? Are we too far out of the way? If no one had found the French Lady how in the hell would they find the crash survivors?_

She must have been silent for too long because Shannon was staring at her, a concerned look on her face,

"Hey, are you okay? You're not going to freak out are you?" Amara shook her head slowly, staying quiet for a moment longer before speaking.

"No one is going to find us are they?" her voice was flat and defeated. Shannon's eyes looked panicky again, like the look an older sibling gets when their little sibling is crying and they don't want their parents to find out.

"Shit, no that's not what it means at all, it just means that there was someone who got stranded here too and they have a radio, for all we know the radio doesn't even work properly and we're the only ones who can hear her or something. Sayid just didn't want to tell anyone because he thought it would upset people."

 _Gee I wonder why_

Amara still wasn't convinced but Shannon looked so distressed so she decided to drop it for now.

"You're probably right," She smiled and scooted back to her towel, before lying down, "Besides, Sayid will figure something out." Amara wasn't entirely sure how much she believed that last bit, but it seemed to work for Shannon, who stretched her arms and laid back down,

"Everything will work out Amara, rescue is coming."

Besides running over to the gathering spot to get fruits and water, and one trip to the latrine, the girls had stayed on their towels the whole day talking about school and people they hated, their awful stepmothers in particular.

"My dad's second wife was the one who decided I should go to a boarding school in America. She said it was so I could 'learn a new culture' and 'grow as a young woman' but it was really because she was mad that I put a whole jar of crickets in her underwear drawer." Amara regaled, a cheeky grin on her newly freckled face.

"She sent you to another country just because you put bugs in her clothes?"

"Well no, that was just the last straw, I had done all sorts of way worse things to try and get her to leave before, once I swapped out the binder in her briefcase with one I had filled with pictures from old playboys, she opened it up in the middle of the boardroom to give a presentation and her boss saw it. The one made her maaaaaaad. I pushed her into a pool at a dinner party once, put Nair in her body wash, those sort of things. I managed to pass all of them off as accidents or little pranks, so my dad didn't care, because I was eleven and he thought I was just 'going through a phase' but she figured out how to get rid of me eventually."

Shannon laughed and rolled over onto her stomach,

"God I wish I had done that to Sabrina, it would have been so funny to watch her freak out like that."

"Believe me, it was worth it, then again I didn't have to deal with the aftermath of it for very long; Dad divorced her a couple months later because she was shagging the dry cleaning guy." Shannon laughed again,

"Seriously how many wives has your father had?"

"Five." Amara said plainly, she held up a hand and numbered them off. "My mom was number one, she was a bitch and left a year after I was born. Parenthood was just 'too hard' for her I guess. He was single for a long time after that, then met number two who cheated on him. Number three wasn't actually that bad until we found out she was slowly draining my dad's bank accounts, number four ended up falling back in love with her college girlfriend, and he's still with number five. She's nice lady, makes good French toast and watches a lot of those old mystery shows. She doesn't hate me either, which is a bonus."

"Damn. At least he finally found someone decent." Amara chuckled,

"Yeah, finally."

"Well hey, hopefully you and your fiancée have more luck than your dad does, when are you guys getting married?" Amara's face fell, and she paused briefly before answering.

"June 16th 2002."

Shannon immediately looked confused,

"But its 2004, what do you m-''

"Felix died a month before we were supposed to get married." Tears pricked at her eyes and she drew in a shaky breath before continuing. "We wanted to go to the movies just to get out of our flat, we had been doing wedding planning for a couple weeks straight and wanted a break. We didn't even pick out a movie beforehand, we were just going to show up and figure it out when we got there. On the way there we found a short alleyway that made an excellent shortcut and figured hell, there were two of us, we'd be fine." Her chin started to wobble a little bit and her voice broke,

"It was only a short way and it was pretty well lit, we shouldn't have any issues. Halfway through this American guy jumps out and demands we give him our valuables, I was feeling pretty brazen and told him to get out of our way, because usually that works, but then the guy pulled out a gun."

Shannon's eyes were wide as saucers,

"We didn't know what to do, people don't go around with guns in London, so I flung my hands up like the police make you do and…" A lump formed in her throat and the tears spilled over, "The guy thought I was going for him I guess, so he pulled the trigger, Felix had somehow gotten in front of me and he got hit in the chest. The guy freaked out and ran away, leaving me and Felix on the ground. He was bleeding really badly and I started yelling for people to help, but it wouldn't have done any good, he wouldn't have made it anyways. The bullet hit too close to his heart. Felix asked me to stop yelling, grabbed my hand, told me that he loved me very much and that he wanted me to be happy, and that he'd always be with me. Then he died."

Shannon's manicured hand hovered at her mouth for a moment,

"Oh my god that blows, I'm so sorry." Amara wiped the tears off her face and exhaled loudly, a little embarrassed to be crying in front of someone she hadn't known for very long.

"It's okay, you had no way of knowing. It's good to talk about it every once in a while, or so I'm told. Sorry for dumping all of that on you." She laughed halfheartedly, trying hard to diffuse the situation before she started crying more. Shannon looked like she had no idea at all what to say, and Amara didn't blame her at all for it, it wasn't exactly something you heard in everyday conversation.

The two girls sat in silence for a long time, staring at their feet, and Amara worried that she may have ruined the vibe that they had had going before Shannon broke the silence.

"My dad died too. Car accident. Some lady crashed into him head on. He died at the hospital, the doctors couldn't save him." Amara looked up and was surprised to see that Shannon's eyes were swimming with tears. Amara reached over and placed a hand on Shannon's arm

"I'm so sorry, I can't even imagine that, it must have been awful for you." Shannon lifted her head back up, sighed and wiped her face, then smiled a different type of smile than Amara had seen from her before, it was softer, her whole face was softer.

"Thank you."

"No problem girl." Amara squeezed Shannon's arm and scooted back onto her towel. The silence fell again, but it wasn't awkward like before. Amara laid back and smiled, she was happy to have told someone other than her dad and her doorman about Felix, and Shannon seemed to be happy to have said something too. They hadn't exactly gushed about their feelings, but it wasn't really necessary, they both understood what the other was feeling and had experienced, and that was good for the both of them.

A few more hours passed and the girls had resumed their chatter, barely noticing that it was starting to get darker out.

"We're in Malibu part of the year, but the guys there are such idiots." Shannon remarked, just as a red light shot up into the sky and exploded, leaving a bit of black smoke in its wake.

"Umm, Shan?" Amara pointed up to the sky and Shannon whipped around,

"Dammit!" She launched herself towards the rocket, fumbling a bit with the lighter as she tried to light it, "Dammit, dammit, dammit." The rocket went off, and Amara scrambled to flip the switch on the post thing. Several seconds later, the third rocket went off and the girls sank back into the sand, relieved.

"Well, we've accomplished what we were supposed to do today," Amara said cheerfully, "Lets go get some food."

Later that night Amara sat alone on the edge of the beach, toes in the water, staring out at the stars. Boone had come back to camp shortly before the sun set and told the girls what had happened at the caves, telling them how one of the walls had caved in onto Jack and that he had almost died, but Charlie had managed to squeeze in and save him, so it all ended up okay. Amara had felt a twinge of guilt for not being there to help out, but she had been there to help with the radio thing and that was good too. Shannon and Boone had gone off to bed right after sunset, but Amara wasn't tired.

She dug her toes into the sand, feeling the grit between her toes before the waves rushed in and swept it away. She let out a sign of contentment and laid back onto her elbows to better see the stars. On The Island there wasn't any light pollution, so the stars were absolutely remarkable. There were millions up there, clearer than she had ever seen. It was so magical out here, just for a second, the camp was silent, everyone was probably asleep by now, so she had the stars all to herself

After a while her mind drifted away to the stars and returned to the mysterious French woman. Who was she? How did she get to The Island? Was she on a plane? How many people was she with when she got stranded? She couldn't imagine being alone on this island for even a day honestly, let alone sixteen years, then again, she doubted the lady had made it sixteen years. It was hard enough for a group of forty-some odd people do find a source of fresh water and food, how could one person do those things **and** avoid whatever monster was out there?

Lost in thought, her mind drifted all over the place, she hadn't journaled today, which felt bizzare, she'd have a lot to write about tomorrow for sure, yawning, she stood up and headed for her tent. She paused briefly by the signal fire and wondered where Sayid was,

 _He probably spent the night at the caves, he's fine. He knows what he's doing. He's fine._

Yawning again, she added another log to the fire before heading off to bed.


End file.
